A Man of Honor
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Shanks carried a great deal of unknown secrets with him after the death of his former captain, Gol D. Rogers. One of which was his secret marriage to a pretty little thing named Mya. 1) he's a runaway nobleman's son. 2) he's married. and 3) at the ripe age of twenty four it was now time to return to the Cove and claim his bride. Shanks/OC
1. Chapter 1

He wondered when the descent into chaos began as he sat in his cabin on his twenty fourth birthday, with his lets propped up on his desk, nursing a glass of aged scotch. Could it had been when he had first left the limited and constrained life of a nobleman's son behind? Or when he had first taken to the sea's on Gol D. Roger's crew as his cabin boy at the tender age of eleven?

Or had it perhaps been the first time he had saw her.

God knew that she had certainly been a vision lovelier than anything he'd ever seen before, though he would never say so aloud, in her turquoise colored little dress with soft pink satin ribbon running along the length of her dress's bodice and another one tied in a butterfly bow around her slender waist.

The first thing that he had noticed when he had walked into town with Gol's crewmates to gather supplies and restock the ship, had been her almost waist length hair that was strangely as eye catchingly red as his own.

And paired up with her angelic little heart shaped face, and her hauntingly beautiful features and eyes the same color of her dress- She had been standing next to an elderly man in his forties or fifties when the crew had waltzed into town and were greeted automatically as if they were hero's.

Which had confused him greatly given the fact that they were pirates instead of ordinary sailors.

But nothing confused him half as much as seeing his captain practically run over to the girl and pick her up in his arms and lay a big kiss on her cheek before saying, "My hime! Tell me stuff. How is school going?" As he turned and with a brief pause, nodded to the elder that the girl had been standing next to and started walking away with the girl.

He might have began to ask someone just who the little mite was and why his captain had grabbed her and called her Hime when he heard some of his crewmates begin laughing, "That Gol, every time we're here he spends a majority of his time with his little hime!"

"It's almost as if he's leg shackled himself to the girl." Another howled with laughter before another said in an amused tone,

"Well Gol better watch out or our own pretty little cabin boy will steal his hime away from him."

He turned his copper eyes to the man that had just spoken and made a mental note to beat the hell out of him later on for calling him 'pretty'. He was a man for christs sake! Men were not pretty.

The had long and greasy hair, rarely shaved, even more rarely washed and they and their clothing smelled very strongly of BO from weeks or even years of being at sea without the proper facilities to care for or groom themselves.

See? Not pretty.

Terrible is what the lot of them were.

Besides, he didn't want to steal the little mite from his captain. She was cute and all, but he knew from personal experience that red heads had terrible tempers.

He chuckled as he took another sip of his scotch and felt the need to shake his head at his younger self's observation's of the world and the people in it.

He'd been such a little jerk back then, he would admit. And that didn't really change the entire trip. But every time they had left, he'd seen the little mite watching their ship sail away from the quaint little island, he'd felt a strange sense of...well he hadn't really known what he felt at the time.

But he could pinpoint it now.

He'd been flattered that the little mite would always be there to greet them upon their return to the island, and had even grown accustomed to the site of her over the years. He had even started watching her to the point where his crewmates and captain had noticed, though he certainly hadn't meant to get caught any.

Every time he had seen her, she'd simply grew prettier and prettier until one day when he was fourteen, he'd come across her during a firework's festival and had stolen a kiss.

Now don't get him wrong- at the time he'd just been fourteen and she had barely been ten. Still the kiss had been sweet in it's innocence. And damned if he knew better than to try seducing someone that young. So he'd done the honorable thing and while he and his crewmates had been on the island for two months, and he'd started courting her.

Not wanting anyone to get the wrong idea about the little lass.

However he hadn't foreseen other things getting in the way of their relationship.

At barely ten, a local noble had dropped by the island and had wanted her as his newest mistress. Ol Gol upon hearing the news had damned near blown a fuse before he had slammed his mug of ale down on the tavern table he'd been staying at for the past few days attempting to relax, and had gotten his guns and left without so much as a word to any of them.

By the time the news had spread completely around the island about his wee little mite, his captain had already killed the noble in cold blood and dumped him in the sea and returned to the island to have a little talk with his little mite's grand-da.

And after said talk, Gol had approached him and told him to come with him back to the ship for a little bit to get something. Of course upon reaching the ship, his captain had been kind enough to tell him that he would be picking out a marriage gift as well as a ring for his little mite since he had negotiated terms for an arranged marriage for him and his mite.

The terms, as far as he knew- were fairly simple. He would wait until she was around sixteen to actually marry the girl, but couldn't claim his wedding night until she was about twenty. The other stipulations were also rather simple given how much the lass meant to Gol and himself.

He would never cheat on her- even while visiting taverns and getting drunk with his crewmates. He could never lay his hands on her in anger or while drunk. He would never force himself on her- He wasn't sure just what kind of person his captain thought he was going to grow up into, but he was terribly offended already.

The captain had even told him that part of the terms also covered if the marriage didn't work out or not as well as if they had children. His captain was a really old fashioned sort of man.

He believed that if a man married it was forever. He was also rather gentlemanly when it came to women, which he supposed is how the old sea dog managed to land his woman several years later.

But he digressed.

The rest of the terms were more...well, a _formality_ , concerning their joint future. As the little mite's soon-to-be-husband he was expected to make sure that she never went without.

Money, clothes, food, shelter- she should never be without. And if she happened to bear him a child once he claimed his wedding night, it was also his job to take some time off from being a pirate to stay with his family and protect them until his child/children were old enough to take care of themselves as well as some other things.

Once all of the guidelines were laid out for him, he readily agreed to each one knowing that his little mite was worth it. And now at the age of twenty four- it was finally time to return to the island.

To his little mite to check and see how she had grown and finally claim what was his.

He polished off the rest of the scotch in his glass in one go and put it down on his desk as a grin curved his lips. His poor wife hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since the day that they had been married.

Wouldn't she be shocked to see him when he finally showed up? He'd bet that she'd give him all kinds of hell. Strangely enough, he couldn't seem to wait to see her again. Getting up out of his seat, he put his scotch up and then went to the door of his cabin, deciding to go ahead and break up the celebration that his men had put together in honor of his birthday so that they could head to the island.


	2. Chapter 2

It took the Red Haired pirate crew and their captain at least two weeks before they finally reached the cove island that Shanks had demanded that they set sail for. And many of the crew had noticed in recent days that their captain had become- strangely enough- noticeably anxious as time passed since they had turned their ship around and begun towards their destination.

And yet no matter how anxious Shanks seemed to become, no one could get the damned man to open up a little bit and tell them what was going on.

So when they finally reached their destination and dropped anchor at the end of those long and almost torturous two weeks, several of the crew- along with the first mate, cabin boy and cook- had all gathered to flip a coin to see who would be getting to run down to the captain's quarters and tell him that they were finally at the island.

"I call heads." One man said as he pulled out a silver coin.

"Tails." Two others said.

"Uh...what do we do if one of us calls a side, and wins and has to fight the others?"

"You can run fast right?" One asked.

The lad that had asked the question before, nodded his head slowly. As if he wasn't quite certain how to respond when the older men all grinned at him. Those terrible shit eating grins that often times than not led to him getting himself into all sorts of mischief and trouble.

"G-Guys, I-I'd really rather not have to run really fast." He said as his eyes started to tear up some while his crewmates kept grinning as they finally flipped the coin. Everyone watched it fall with a mixture of anticipation and horror when a familiar hand snatched it out of thin air, crushing the older men and making the cabin boy weep in relief as they each turned their heads to see their half dressed captain standing there glaring at them.

"Location?" Was all that he said to them as he rubbed at his freshly shaven jawline with his free hand.

"Uh, w-we've arrived at the cove that you wanted to come too sir." The first mate said as Shanks finally stopped rubbing his jawline and looked around for a second. In the years that he'd been gone, the cove island that he remembered had changed drastically.

Mostly because the once pristine white sand beach on the shore was littered with makeshift crosses from the dozens of graves littering the area.

Narrowing his eyes at the old looking grave markers, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened. And if his little mite had somehow fallen prey to whatever it was. Could she have been dead and buried all these years?

He found himself feeling more than a little bit distressed and numb at the mere thought of his little mite never having reached adulthood and dying all alone without him there to protect her.

"Everyone, ready the boats. We go ashore as soon as I'm finished dressing. And depending on what I find when we are there, we'll stay between a few days to maybe about a year or so before we set sail again." Shanks said, already planning ahead just in case his wife was either dead or alive.

This way if she was alive and in fairly good health and spirits he could resume wooing her. Whereas if she were dead...he'd need to know what happened and why as well as the names of every party involved so that he could avenge her.

Afterwards he'd likely return to the island and pay her grave a visit and bow his head in shame for not being around to protect her.

Sighing softly at his own morbid thoughts, Shanks turned on his heel and made his way back to his cabin to finish dressing himself. After all, he couldn't very well show up on his wife's doorstep in only his pants, boots and sash- she might think him some sort of creeper and decide to club him upside the head or something.

Sort of like she had on their first date- well he counted it as a first date. In actuality what had happened was that he had stolen into her bedroom late one night on a whim because he'd wanted to see her. She'd awoken to find him standing next to her bed, watching her sleep and had flipped out on him and bashed him right good over the head with a heavy lamp and then screamed half the town awake thinking that she had killed him.

He'd wound up so concussed that he'd seen five of everything for about three days before his vision had finally cleared up. And the whole time he was staggering about town, trying to chase her down and apologize for obviously frightening her, Gol and the rest of the crew had laughed themselves silly.

Pulling on his nicest black shirt, he took his time buttoning it before grabbing his jacket and shrugging it on as he glanced out of his cabin window, out at the sea and muttered, "You better still be alive and in one piece little mite."

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Mya sat on the porch of her late grand-da's home with her hands carefully folded in her lap as she stared blankly ahead. It had been a while since she had lived on the cove island, far away from the mainland. Almost eight years really. She had come back to the island on a whim after the marines had come to the island and killed anyone that they felt was in cahoot's with Gol D. Roger, the former king of the pirates.

Her grand-da had been just one of the villagers dragged from his home in the middle of the night after Gol's last departure and murdered in front of everyone. Another person who had died that night had been the bar keep, another the hotel manager, a few women and some shop venders.

She herself had even been shot in the head and thought dead when she had attacked the man that had killed her grand-da. The only thing that had saved her was one of the commanding officer's that had come along with the marines.

The moment that he'd seen his man shoot her in the head, he'd gunned him down to make an example of him. Stating before one and all- "We kill pirates and those in league with them, not innocent children." After that he'd checked to see if she was still alive and when he had found that she was, began tending to her wound right there on the street as he had shouted for a doctor to step forward and help her.

She'd wound up having to have surgery where the bullet had lodged in her skull. Having several procedures done to empty her skull of excess fluid. And then slipped into a coma for about a year. And when she had woken up to realize that she had nothing left, not even a home in which to return too- she had _hated_ Gol and his crew for the first time in her young life.

In the years since waking up though, that hatred had lessened to practically nothing. And after living on the mainland for so long and working everyday, she had managed to make enough to move back to the island and buy back her grand-da's home and the land that it had set upon.

Though several months back she had been going through her grand-da's stuff and found a letter addressed to her in his writing stating that she needn't worry about taking care of herself. He had been given more than enough money by Gol to put back for her in the local banks to see to it that she never had to work unless she simply wanted too. And after doing some investigating into the contents of the letter, she had found that Gol had left her grand-da a virtual treasure trove of gold, silver, copper, semi precious pieces of jewelry and gems worth a staggering amount of millions per item and had damned near fainted from the shock.

She had known that the man-er pirate- had been incredibly fond of her as a child. But she hadn't realized that he had been so fond of her that he had practically handed over every bit of treasure that he had collected in his _fifteen_ _something years_ of sailing the seas.

Still, as much as she had...appreciated Gol's insight and worry for her future- she hadn't felt right about simply using the money to live in the lap of luxury like most girls her age would have. Nor had she totally blown it.

Instead she had taken some time to go through everything and had pulled out enough to put into having a shop built for her. As well as all of the materials needed to run the place.

Display cases, lights, some nice classy paintings to hang on the walls- some stuff imported semi expensive goods from the mainland, and some materials for her to design and make her own brand of jewelry and stuff and after about four months straight of constant daily work- she had finally gotten enough unique materials done to sell.

And since opening day, her sales had quadrupled what Gol had left behind for her. The best part of the whole thing happening, had of course been the fact that she had been able to make her high class items affordable for everyone no matter how much or how little money they made.

She even had monthly sales where little kids could come into her shop with jars of pennies and pick something nice out for their moms, sisters, brothers and dads- some have even bought a few items during the sales that went straight to their boyfriends/girlfriends.

It was sweet really, and as long as she kept making such high class items- she didn't have to worry about going bankrupt. And even if she did, she would still have more than enough to live on in her lifetime. So that was something.

Sighing because she felt tired of simply staring blankly ahead- and she hadn't managed to get any work done today, she decided that maybe she could go into town in a little bit and have a drink or two at the bar.

For some reason that she never really understood, going out and having a drink at the bar always helped her come up with new and interesting ideas for her work. Getting up she grabbed her ink pen and her small sketch pad and then started down the steps of her home towards the town.

She had a strange feeling that something really exciting was going to happen soon. She didn't know what.

(******************************************************************************************************************************************************)

The moment that Shank's boat was dragged up on the shore of the beach- he was out of the small wooden boat and slashing over to one line of makeshift crosses. He had seen something that he needed to confirm. It was a name.

Avery Rollin's. He came to an abrupt stop before the marker with the name on it and felt as if his heart would stop beating within his chest.

The last time that he had seen the fifty-sixty something year old man, had been on his wedding day. With Gol as a co-conspirator the thing had been huge.

Shanks even recalled it taking place on his wife's favorite time in the spring. Since everyone knew that if it had been left up to him- he would have been wedded on some dreary day with absolutely no sunlight whatsoever and a lot of rain- just to irritate his wife.

He recalled that Gol and Avery had made sure that he had a nice suit, and that his wife had a pretty white dress that could have doubled as an actual wedding gown.

The church had been fixed up outside as well as inside, and the fellowship hall had several different buffets laid out. They had even had a cake!

It had been a two layer white buttercream icing one, complete with lots of icing lilies and little other things and on top of it was a small, handmade figurine of himself and his little wife.

Everything had been fantastic. Avery had stood with him up in front of the alter with Gol as his ring bearer that day. He had even called him son several times.

Staring down at the cross, he felt an nearly overwhelming feeling of grief as he opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it for a moment before simply saying, "I'm sorry my friend, that I wasn't here before. But a deal is a deal and she's twenty now. So I'll be claiming my bride. And...you don't have to worry none- Gol made sure that I turned out well. You just rest up, you deserve the peace." Blinking the sudden wetness from his eyes, he turned and began to walk away- seeing his crew hadn't already hightailed it into town just yet, Shanks almost smiled in amusement.

Damn him, but his boys must be near dying from curiosity. Well too bad he didn't really feel like sharing anything about his wife yet. Though he had no problem mentioning Avery if it would help him learn of what happened to the man.

As a general rule, people weren't usually buried on a beach unless they were sailors. And typically most of the sailors he knew tended to have sea burials more than land ones.

No- when so many bodies were clumped together like that- it usually meant that they were criminals of some sort. But the Avery that he'd known had been a former school teacher. So unless he'd had a bounty on his head for teaching children how to spell and count things- then something bad must have happened.

Really, really bad.

Seeing him return to the group his first mate gave him a questioning look as he gave everyone a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and said, "Sorry mates, I was paying my respects to one of my family. Now before I hand out your part of the booty we've accumulated this trip- I'd like you lads to ask questions around town while your out doing the usual. I want to know what happened to Pap Avery. Understand?"

Everyone damn near pissed themselves as they all nodded and he took his time handing each of them a pouch of gold, silver and copper coin to use as they pleased. That took the better half of thirty minutes, in and of itself before he was finished and quickly dismissed the lot who in turn began to run up the old dirt path leading from the beach towards the town as he slowly shook his head at their antics.

It was like unleashing children in a candy store.

That poor town didn't know what was in store for it. He thought in some wry amusement as he walked at a more sedate pace than a majority of his crew up the old dirt path and started towards the town feeling a sudden yen to drink some ale in Avery's memory before he went off to find his wife.

God knew that he would need the extra boost of courage after leaving her alone to face the world without her dear grand-da. Especially since he was fairly certain that she may not forgive him anytime soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Mya sat at the table in the back of the bar with her note pad and pen lying next to her half empty glass of whisky. So far all she seemed to be interested in were star patterns. Hideous star patterns, but star patterns nevertheless. So she had tried doodling sea stars, normal stars, twelve point stars- which was really, really hard because they kept ending up with far too many points to them. And she had been about to try another doodle when the door to the bar opened and she just happened to look up to see a group of...pirates.

Great.

Suddenly feeling the need to leave before the bar got too busy- not to mention loud, she polished off her whiskey and slowly stood up and grabbed her things and walked over to the counter and was about to pay her tab when the door opened again and a six foot four inch redheaded man in his twenties walked in.

Blinking her turquoise eyes as she took him in, she noticed that he was one of the pirates. The captain maybe? If the way that he was dressed was any indication at all.

He was certainly a handsome devil, too bad she didn't hold much interest in sea faring men.

"Leaving already, hon?" The barkeep asked in a friendly/curiously manner.

"Yeah, I have a feeling that the place is about to get a little bit more rowdy than I'm used to. So I'm going to call it a day. Thanks for the whiskey though." She said as she handed him the money for her drinks and then started to turn to leave when one of the pirates must have finally noticed her.

"Hey check out the sweet little thing at the bar!" He practically yelled as he pointed at her. Which in turn caused every male in the bar that both knew her and didn't- to look right at her.

Including big red who got a funny look on his handsome face before someone grabbed her and picked her up and tried to press his filthy mouth against her skin. Everything after that seemed to happen so fast to her that it was practically a blur.

One second she was squirming and trying to get free and the next big red and decked the man that had grabbed her, and had his free arm firmly, yet not quite so much that he may have been hurting her like the other guy had been- had her around her slender waist, keeping her upright while the other man hit the floor hard.

"I know that you've been on the ship a while but acting like a bunch of mangy curs towards the first woman that you see is hardly a great way to make new friends. _Don't. Let. It. Happen. Again,_ " Big red said in an authoritative tone as he gently set her down next to him and then looked down at her and as he said gently. "Forgive my crewmate, miss. He's a good lad, a little soft in the head but doesn't mean any harm."

She looked at him for a moment, trying to tamp down on the urge to simply remain silent. But the strange way that he was looking at her was...a little difficult to miss. And it made her uncomfortable.

"Yeah, sure. I-I need to go now." She stammered out as she slowly began to back away, missing the brief flicker of guilt in red's expression as she slowly moved away from him when he suddenly said,

"It's best not to tarry overmuch with this lot running wild. You-You be careful going home now lass." He looked as if he wanted to say something else, but thought best not to at the last moment and instead merely looked down at the floor as she quickly and quietly exited the bar and scampered off.

It was right around then that he noticed the sketch pad and pen and bent down to pick them up thinking that it was nice of fate to have created a way for him to weasel his way back into her life as he stared down at the items and sighed as he thought, _She didn't recognize me. Why? Why didn't she recognize me?_

To be perfectly honest he had known who she was the very moment that he'd stepped into the bar and saw a young woman with mid back length eye catchingly red hair.

He'd half expected her to look at him and suddenly break out grinning (or possibly turn on the waterworks) but there had been no familiarity in her eyes as she had looked him over. Or rather no reaction to even indicate familiarity as her turquoise eyes had swept over his form from head to toe before dismissing him completely.

Which, yeah okay- had hurt his ego a little bit.

After all, he was told often that he was quite a catch despite his occupation as a pirate. He had looks. Strength. Money. Manners- he was a little bit rusty with them due to his long years at sea- but he was fairly certain that they were still relatively intact.

He didn't drink overly much unlike the rest of his men unless there was a party of some sort going on, and even then- he only had a few drinks before he quite drinking ale, beer and whatever was being served and switched it out for scented water so that his lads wouldn't think too badly of him.

He didn't mind the occasional one or two drinks, but he'd be damned if he became as dependent on the stuff as the rest of his men were. He had a woman and future children to think of for crying out loud! The last thing that he wanted was to become a drunker.

Besides he tended to get mean when he was drunk. Or so he'd been told by a few of his more braver crewmates anyways. Probably because they were the only men still _conscious_ and _uninjured_ the last time he'd gotten drunk.

Still the point remained- he had a woman and future children to think of. And he had. Perhaps a bit more often than normal for a man of his occupation.

In the past eight years, he had spent more days than he cared to admit, daydreaming about his Mya and the day that they would meet again. So far he was a tad bit disappointed by what _has_ or rather _has not_ happened.

But it wasn't like he didn't expect some difficulty from her. He just hadn't known to what degree. His Mya and difficulty had often times tended to go hand and hand when she had been a child. Somehow he really doubted that that had changed overly much in all of the years they had been apart.

Feeling rather than seeing the man that he'd knocked out, start to rouse from his place on the floor- Shanks turned his head to look at him for a moment and then walked over to the bar and set the sketch pad and pen down on the counter as he took a seat on one of the stools and stared at the man behind the counter wondering where the old man that had used to run the bar when he was a kid was hiding.

Usually he would have come running out of wherever he was hiding to greet anyone that just walked in, but for some weird reason the man simply wasn't present in the bar.

"Excuse me mate, could you tell me where the former owner of the bar is? He's an old friend and I'd like to say hello to him." He said the words as politely as possible so that the man wouldn't know that he was digging for information from him.

But the man's response caught him more than a little bit off guard. "The former owner? I-I think he was killed in an attack on the village almost nine years ago- give or take."

Shanks had to mask his fury very carefully so that it wouldn't show outward as he asked, "A-An attack on the village, you say?"

"Yeah. A lot of people were killed by a bunch of marines that happened by the island. I don't know everything pertaining to the story, but you know the young lady that just left here a few minutes ago- " Shanks felt something akin to dead settle in the pit of his stomach as he nodded his head and waited for the man to continue. "She was the only person shot in the head that day that lived. Apparently from what little bit people have said over the years, she attacked one of the marines because he murdered her grandfather. The poor kid wasn't even able to put up a decent fight before she was thrown to the ground and shot point blank in the head in front of everyone. She barely survived the wound and was taken to a local doc for treatment and had to have several surgeries and even wound up in a coma for about a year afterwards. There aren't many around here anymore that even remember who she is. But the few who do, tend to worry about her a great deal. Head wounds are difficult to get over. Especially ones involving bullets."

Shanks listened to the man speak until he seemed to run out of words and then shoved his seat back and stood up and grabbed the pad and pen before asking, "Does she still live outside of town?"

The man looked surprised that he seemed to know that much about Mya since he'd never seen him so much as step foot in the village before today, and merely nodded his head yes and watched as the red haired man made his way tot he door and slipped out.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite the strange red haired man's warning not to...uh...tarry- Mya didn't seem able to get home before she was grabbed by another couple of pirates looking for a good time. Currently she found herself pinned between one such man and a really scratchy brick wall while hands wandered all over her form, making her want to vomit as the man tried to lip lock with her and only managed to graze her cheek when she turned her head.

She did _not_ want this jerk to kiss her.

She'd rather bite her tongue off and die first.

"Your so pretty, miss." He panted in her ear as he ripped buttons off of her shirt in his haste to open it while she thought, _And what a bane beauty is._ However was jolted out of her thoughts the moment that calloused fingers grasped the tender flesh of her breast, causing her to suddenly snap to and lash out.

She hit the guy hard enough to make him stagger back a few steps and free her- if only for the moment. But it was hardly enough to save her if the guy decided to beat the hell out of her.

Luckily- or unluckily, depending on whom one decided to ask- the man from before appeared out of nowhere before her would be rapist could so much as lay another hand on her and draped his jacket over her slender shoulders and used one of his hands to quickly tug it closed around her before he turned his attention to the men that had grabbed her, but more specifically the one that had taken liberties with her person.

"Is there a particular reason why you lot seem to think that you can forget your manners when near a woman?"

The group all looked at the man funny before the one that had pinned her before spoke up nervously, "Aw, captain- We was just having a little bit of fun, we were. We meant no harm. Really."

Red's glare was positively lethal as he stared the bunch down before muttering, "Just a bit of fun? _No harm?_ Since when have I grown so lax that I would let such savages sail with me? I'm pretty sure that attacking a woman and _attempting_ to force yourselves on her is just a little bit more than harmless fun. Get the hell out of my sight before I have you whipped! And never come near this woman again!"

The men all looked as if they might argue, in fact one man was actually stupid enough to try when red grabbed him by the throat and squeezed threateningly as he said something in the man's ear that made him turn a sickly shade of white before he released him.

After that the whole group practically ran screaming away from them.

Glancing up at big red, she wondered why he had bothered stepping in. After all, pirates were notorious for doing all manner of unsavory things to people. Rape- while one of the more favored pasted times of such men so lacking in morals- was merely the tip of the ice burg when it came to them.

Seeing a large hand suddenly enter her line of vison, she nearly jumped out of her skin before realizing that red was attempting to help her up. Slowly, she slipped her small hand into his own and felt his fingers close around her.

His hand felt warm, but not annoyingly so as he tugged her close to him and then bent down a little bit and slipped an arm around her legs and picked her up so that she was practically sitting on his arm. Squeaking she wrapped her arms around his neck to hold herself upright and turned several shades of pink when she found herself face to face with his unblinking amber eyes for a moment before he said in an exasperated tone.

"I told you not to tarry lass."

Bristling slightly at his words she growled at him as he started walking as she hissed out. "It wasn't like I asked them to grab me."

He gave her a funny sideways glance before saying gently, "I never said that you did. Your just too damned pretty, lass. The lads can't seem to control themselves when they see you. That's not your fault. It just means that they need more discipline."

"Then maybe you should take care of that, _captain_." She said in a slightly scathing tone that took him a little bit off guard. But he couldn't really dispute that he obviously needed to do something about his men to keep such incidents from occurring from now on.

Maybe he should give them more chores aboard the ship before they left it from now on? Either that or he should just beat them all senseless. He mused before saying, "Aye, lass. I'll do just that. But in the meantime it appears as if I'm going to have to be your personal bodyguard."

"Yay. Just what I've always wanted- a pirate bodyguard. Oh joy and rapture..." She said with notable sarcasm in her tone, causing the man to winch slightly as if hurt. But that was impossible, he was a pirate for crying out loud.

They normally only came with two mindsets, wenching and killing. Well okay, _three_ mindsets if one tended to count the drinking along with the other two.

"Anyone ever told ye lass that you have a waspish tongue for such a beauty? That sarcasm could wound a man, lass." Red snarked back at her in an slightly waspish tone of his own.

"Aww, just wound?" She asked with a sudden malicious grin that would have sent any lesser man running for the hills, before cooing at him mockingly, "I though I was trying to draw blood."

Big Red was silent for a good long while after that. Possibly withdrawing into himself to lick his wounds- then again, when had she ever been so lucky? She wondered when he suddenly shifted her in his grasp and then carefully set her down on her feet.

Looking around for a moment, she realized that he'd carried her all the way to her home. But how? She hadn't told him where she lived, and she knew damned well no one else would have done so either. So how had he managed to know where she lived?

Was he some sort of creepy stalker or something?

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't notice him turn and begin to leave at first. But once she did- she started to go after him when he suddenly stopped a little ways from the porch and glanced back at her as she demanded, "Hey! How did you know where I lived?"

To which he merely replied cryptically, "A man always knows where his woman is," And then tacked on another, " _Always_." To emphasis his point before turning back around and walking off. Leaving her floundering for some sort of plausible explanation as to _why_ he would say such a thing when she finally realized just what he had said and let out a shriek of horror.

Did that stupid man _actually_ just call her his woman?!

Whimpering as she turned to go into her home, she completely missed the fact that Red didn't actually leave her property and was hiding just behind a tree a little ways away from her home trying to figure out what the hell to do now.


	5. Chapter 5

It took Shanks a little while to return to town.

Especially given how troubling the circumstances of things were to the man. He had a serious choice to make and wasn't sure what to do. On one hand, he could try wooing his little mite again. Maybe rekindle what they had had previously and change it into a more adult-like relationship? And then there was his other option as well- with Mya not recognizing who he was or seeming to recall their prior relationship- he could just let her go.

Maybe give her a clean break and a chance to one day find a decent fellow to give her heart too and have children with.

But then he realized that he didn't particularly like that idea overly much. Especially when it involved some filthy faceless man touching what by rights- should he his and his alone.

So...wooing it was then.

But before he could really get started on that, he needed to deal with some of his men. Mainly the ones that had grabbed his woman, not once but twice. They needed to be punished to ensure that they never grabbed his woman again before he could do anything further.

Upon his inevitable return to town, he went straight to the bar where he found a huge ass ruckus going on. One of the men from before had apparently shared what he had whispered in his ear with the rest of his crew- meaning that he could either shrug it off and say that he had been joking about his claim to Mya's person (which might leave her open to further attacks from his men).

Or he could go ahead and tell his lads the truth of things and then drag the blabbermouth out and kick his ass for _daring_ to speak of his personal affairs in the first place.

Frankly coming clean would give him more wiggle room not to have to worry so much about his lads. After all, if anyone was foolish enough to lay a hand on his wife after he told them about her- well, there would simply be a great number of his crew that would 'mysteriously' vanish off of the face of the earth one night when the lot of them least expected him to be up to mischief.

Skirting around his uproaring crewmates, Shanks hid himself off to the side where he could watch and listen to his men carry on easily and lifted a hand up in the air to order himself a drink.

He kind of felt like this was one of those rare times he'd need the liquid courage.

Once the guy behind the bar came scampering over with some ale, Shanks then sat back in his seat and got comfortable as he lifted his mug to his lips and took a sip as he heard his first mate Benn try to calm the crew causing the ruckus.

"I'm telling you that the captain doesn't have a woman!"

"B-But he said that the pretty red headed one was his!" Argued back the guy from earlier. He still looked nervous to Shanks. And for good reason, he supposed he'd be damn near pissing his pants if a man like himself threatened him over a woman.

"I thought the captain didn't particularly like women." Another man said to his friend.

"I've never seen him visit any at the brothels in port towns and such."

"That's because he has a woman! Why would he visit any other but the one that belonged to him! Do you think our captain is such an unscrupulous guy?!"

"I'm telling you that the captain doesn't have a woman!" Benn practically shouted when Shanks finally decided to speak up.

 _"But I do have a woman. A wife actually."_ Everyone suddenly fell silent for a moment as they searched for where his voice was coming from as Shanks then tacked on, "A wife that I married as a lad of sixteen and wasn't able to claim just yet. The same pretty little lass that some of you attacked earlier. Don't think you'll be going unpunished for that."

Everyone goggled at the man as he lifted his ale to his lips again and took another drink and then set it down so that he could say, "There was an incident in this town eight years ago after I married the lass and left. Her grand-da and herself were shot by some bloodthirsty marines that came looking for Gol D. and his crew."

"Her grand-da died, but she apparently suffered a severe trauma, and because of it she doesn't recall me nor our bond. So I'm afraid that while we're here I'll have to woo my woman back into a normal relationship- which means that I'll be giving some of you lads a job of helping me find some courting gifts. Nothing too _terrible_ , flowers, candies, nice clothing- I'll take care of any truly personal or intimate stuff myself." At this point Shanks wasn't sure who he was speaking to more. Himself, or his crew.

Casting a glance towards the bunch that had fallen silent upon hearing his voice, he blinked at their varied expressions of abject horror to disbelief to flat out joy and glee. And decided that he was apparently speaking more to himself then them right now.

Which was fine, he sort of still needed to finalize his plans to woo Mya before he really got into things with his lads anyways.

He was trying to recall some of the stuff she had liked as a little girl. Somehow he didn't think presenting her with pretty cherry blossom print ribbons for her hair would win her heart. Humming thoughtfully, Shanks recalled that she liked flowers.

Lilies- white and pink and red ones- and also pink and cornflower blue bachelor buttons, ivy, magnolias, snapdragons, daffodils, lavender, various colored peonies, blossoms- peach, plum, cherry, orange, and pear- it didn't really matter any.

He recalled that she was damned good at arranging them too. In fact when he used to spend time with her out in the field behind her home, she had used to chatter away at him while she picked and arranged flowers. And once she had finished, she would give him the pick of the whole batch to keep.

He hadn't liked the fact that she was giving her hard work to him at first, but then once the novelty of the fact that she was giving him flowers instead of the other way around had hit him- he'd stopped fussing and just took the best bouquet of the lot and sent them to her home for her to keep. With of course the exception of one or two stems that he kept for himself.

He'd taken to pressing the flowers after a little while though so that he'd be able to keep them with him always. In fact around the time the two of them had married, Gol had taken one of the flowers, a blue forget-me-not, and had it placed inside of a specially made crystal pendant so that he could wear it close to his heart.

And he had.

Everyday he had been apart from her that necklace had been his only solace. However when he had turned eighteen, just a few years after Gol had been killed by the marines, the chain had snapped in the middle of a particularly grueling battle with some of Whitebeard's men and he'd lost the pendant.

He didn't dare make another just yet because he didn't want someone to find out about it and use it against him in some way. After all, he was a notorious pirate. One of the four emperor's of the sea. It was best to hide what precious few weaknesses he did have from, malicious, and prying eyes.

Besides, there was another reason he hadn't replaced his lost crystal pendant just yet. And it was because he wanted to add something to what would be placed inside of it this time.

Hair.

He wanted a small strand from Mya and a small strand from their firstborn child to be placed in the next pendant. And if anyone so much as teased him about it aside from his wife- he was going to knock their teeth out... He didn't find anything wrong with wanting such a thing. Nor did he think it was too much to ask for.

He _did_ love his little mite after all. No amount of time or distance had managed cool his desire for her and to build a life with her.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time morning finally rolled around, Shanks had not only figured out his plan of action concerning how to go about wooing his wife, but he had only a few hours earlier beat the ever loving hell out of the men that had accosted her and all but destroyed the bar in the process.

Currently he was sitting at what was left of the main counter where the still freaked out barkeep was setting his warm milk lightly flavored with honey and cinnamon while he had himself a smoke and counted out what he hoped was enough gold coins that he had pilfered from the crewmates that he'd punished- so that the establishment could have it's walls, windows, tables, chairs, and booths fixed or even renovated to something nicer.

After all, his crew and he might be a bit on the rowdy side, but they usually didn't go around damaging bars and such. It was simply bad for business if they did.

It earned them even more of a terrible reputation and if it didn't stop then every bar and tavern that they came across would practically refuse to serve them.

And that never ended well for anyone.

So it was best to pay for the damages he'd created and hope that it was enough for the barkeep to continue allowing them to come in and drink.

"Here lad," He said as he finally finished counting out several thousand gold coins and placed them in a medium sized leather drawstring pouch and then held it out to the man. "This should pay for all of the damages and then some. Could I ask a favor," The man reached out and took the pouch and then looked at him questioningly as he waited for him to say what he wanted to say. "I need to know if there are any local shops in town where I can find myself a few nice and expensive courting gifts. Can you tell me which shops carry what I may be looking for?"

The man's expression visibly brightened and he looked ever so slightly less shaky and nervous as he quickly mentioned the only shop that he knew of, Artistic Expression. It was a locally owned and run shop that had a little bit of everything from handmade perfumes, sweet scented soaps and lotions and other cosmetics, to handmade clothing for both men and women complete with accessories- and some of the nicest high quality jewelry that the man had ever seen before.

He even went on to tell him that the young woman that owned the shop was always running specials and such where even kids could come in with pennies and get something nice as gifts. He also mentioned that she made enough money from the place and all of it's twenty seven branch stores and galleries that she even helped the local school buy new books and the local clinic get more medicines and highly trained doctors.

Frankly by the time that the man was finished selling Shanks on the idea of popping in for a visit, the man felt rather impressed and jokingly mentioned that he'd love to meet the little Miss before polishing off the rest of his drink and then putting out his cigarette and then getting up and leaving the bar to do just that.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************)

Mya smiled as she finished gift wrapping the peony and peach scented soap and lotion set and placing them in the bag along with several gift wrapped packages of fine jewelry and then handed them to her customer. After yesterday's run in with the red haired pirate- she hadn't been able to sleep a wink.

So today when she had left home to go to work, she had gotten there to find a line of at least fifty people waiting for her to open shop, and then once she had- it was like a stampede had gone running through her shop.

It was really a wonder that nothing had been broken just yet.

So far her sales were up in the triple digits. And though she wasn't really paying attention any, she'd probably in all actuality made much more than several hundred thousand dollars all within an hour in a half.

"Here you go Mr. Winzor. Tell Becca that I hope that she enjoys her gifts." She said in a friendly tone as the man took his purchase and nodded his head to her with a grin.

"She will. You know how she loves your stuff." He said as he turned and walked off, leaving her to take care of the six old ladies there with their arms full of expensive silk and satin designer shirts, dresses, and skirts for their granddaughters. The 'sinister six'.

Otherwise known as the town's biggest sluts thanks entirely to their grandmother's having far too much time on their hands and opening a brothel where the six girls were the main attractions. But then from the scandalous looking clothing and stuff that their grandmother's were buying for them- one could only assume that these women were worse than the worst of enemies to anyone young and beautiful.

Why ever since she had returned to the island the six woman and their granddaughters had been doing their damnedest to con her into working for them since she was the only woman on the island that they knew of that was young, single, pretty and had no interest in relationships with a male.

Couple those things with her long vividly red hair, and the women believed that they would have a best seller.

And technically they weren't wrong.

After all, blonds and brunettes could only do so much to live up to the fantasies of their paying customers. Whereas a red head would provide many with red haired fantasies, something to actually work with.

God were the lot of them still talking? She just wanted to wave a magic wand and make them disappear.

"You should come and work for us deary. I bet that you would really enjoy the pretty clothing and the nice trinkets and baubles you would earn for a decent night's work."

Did they not see her working in her own shop? The very shop where she made a majority of the goods that were sold and raked in so much money that she practically had to give some of it away monthly? Mya wondered as she continued to try and ignore them.

 _Try_ was of course the operative word.

"Yes deary, come and work for us. We would never make you do anything that you didn't want to do-"

That was a flat out lie. She'd heard of one or two other young women being approached by this lot of women and handed a contract that seemed perfectly legit at first, but once signed the person that signed it had to get tattoos and body piercings and even was branded as property of the brothel.

Said girls were then stripped of their clothing, gang raped by some sailors who either knew what was going on or were simply too randy to care- afterwards if they didn't preform on command or tried to escape any of their customers they were beaten and locked in some room with bars on the window and were starved.

So far- both of said girls had managed to escape the only way that they knew how. They had been found dead from hanging.

It was sad really.

But Mya wasn't the least bit interested in becoming the next victim to their manipulations. She wasn't as stupid and ill informed as these women seemed to believe. They all lived in a small town after all, and people tended to talk. And talk often.

And even if the stories were even a little bit false, it still didn't change the fact that two of their former workers _had_ wound up dead under mysterious circumstances.

She was so distracted by the flow of conversation and the fact that the women were starting to get on her nerves that she completely missed the tinkling of the bell hung over her shop's door and the entrance of _he-shall-not-be-named_ until he quietly approached the counter and in the blink of an eye, had leaped over it startling her when he landed next to her with a weird sort of feline grace and greeted her wide eyed stare with a wide grin on his sensual lips as he said.

"Hello my love," And then leaned down and kissed her quickly on the cheek, eliciting a nice pink blush of mortification from her, before he then straightened to his full height and cast a glare at the elderly women that had been hounding her and then said, "Take your things, pay the lady and scram."

The elders all sputtered, teetering somewhere between outrage and something else as he turned his back on them thus dismissing the lot of them while he took Mya's small hands in his own and more or less dragged her away from the register with him.


	7. Chapter 7

Mya didn't know what had just happened- in truth her mind had stopped working the very moment that Red had so casually greeted her, much less the moment that he had pressed his lips against her skin. So naturally she didn't really react when he sort of dragged her away from the register and the sputtering grandmother's attempting to recruit her as their next new island whore, and took her to the other side of the shop before he finally stopped walking and turned to face her.

"I apologize for embarrassing you lass, but you seemed as if you needed some rescuing back there," Red said as he gently rested his hands on her slender shoulders and took in her stupefied expression before going on to say, "But I am happy to have found you here. I'm in need of some help finding some courting gifts-" And that was about as far as he got with explaining his purpose to her before she seemed to shake off her funk and balled her small hand into a fist and then took a swing at him.

And not a play swing either.

But an actual honest to god swing at his face with as much force behind it as she could muster with that petite body of hers. To say that he was surprised would have been fairly accurate. But the moment that she managed to _actually_ connect her small fist with his jaw- well that surprise suddenly flew out of the window and became downright shock.

She'd hit him. His stunned mind practically hissed at him. To which another part of himself was like, _I'll be damned, she_ _actually hit me. Her fist feels like a steel mace._

And it hurt like a mother too. That was another thing that had shocked him.

She'd actually managed to hurt him with those delicate wee hands of hers. And not exactly in a fun way- which simply served to give him even more mixed feelings than he'd already had. He wasn't sure if he was proud, angry, or just plain irked that she'd hit him.

But wait- the shocking surprises didn't end there.

The second that she had figured out that he wasn't going to immediately retaliate- she grabbed the biggest, heaviest wooden shelf that he'd ever seen, dumped everything in it out onto the floor and then lifted it over her head in preparation to bludgeon him to death with him as her pretty green eyes took on this unholy look while she said in a voice that, sounded to his ears, as if it was more animalistic growl than human- "How dare you show your face in my shop and disrupt my day by stealing a kiss you son of a bitch- Give me one good reason why I should let you leave here alive!"

He visibly bristled at her words.

True his mam was a bitch, but he'd been semi raised to respect her for her part in bringing him into the world. But that didn't mean that he would usually let anyone insult her though, that was his job.

"Oi, oi! I just explained why I'm in your shop and I even apologized for the kiss- I need some courting gifts! And another thing, don't be insulting my mam. That's my job!"

She growled like a vicious animal and before he could so much as dive for cover, swung the shelf at his head.

She missed of course, but only because Shanks had managed to stop panicking long enough to throw himself to the floor and roll a few feet out of her reach- even with the use of the shelf- and then quickly bounded to his feet and began running for his life since he didn't really know what else to do at the moment.

It wasn't like he could lay his hands on her to stop her at the moment- in her current hulk-like state, she'd probably kill him anyways. So running away seemed like the most viable strategy for the time being.

Especially if it meant that he could hide himself somewhere and come up with a different plan of action to implement in regards to wooing Mya. One that hopefully wouldn't get him killed or upset her to the point where she would wish to kill him.

Running out of the shop, he paused just outside of the door to look back and see if she was still coming after him and let out a loud-ish almost girly like scream as he suddenly had to dive to the ground again when she threw- yes _threw_ the damndable shelf right through the shop door in an effort to nail him with it.

The shelf hit the ground several feet away from him, almost making him piss his pants at the sound of it hitting, the wood splintered and cracked.

Shanks sat there for a moment trying to gather his wits- god knew if his woman was this pissed about a measly kiss on the cheek then he was going to really need them to get past that insane temper of hers just so that he could get close enough to her to revive their relationship.

Finally feeling a little less fearful and shaky, Shanks slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off, feeling somewhat relieved that Mya had decided not to follow him outside of the shop. He'd look a mite funny and foolish to others running through the village streets screaming in terror while she chased him down.

Once he finished dusting himself off he turned his attention back to the shop to find Mya still standing where she had stopped at to throw the shelf at his head, and let his bronze eyes lock with her own for a moment before he rolled his shoulders as if he was attempting to either shrug off her somewhat hurtful actions towards him or merely trying to loosen some of the tenseness in his shoulders before saying, "I'll return later."

To which his woman only gave him a smug smirk and then dangled something slightly, vaguely familiar to him from her delicate fingertips before replying with a cocky. "You might return later- but you won't be getting far without your wallet. Don't worry though, after I empty it of every coin in it; I'll give what's left back." And with that she turned and walked back into the store to resume her duties, leaving him standing with his jaw hanging open in stunned disbelief.

The damned gal was more like a thief and a pirate than she liked to believe.

And he- for all his faults- was doubly impressed that she had not only managed to scare him out of her shop, but she had also managed to pick his pocket as well.

If any of his crew found out about this debacle he would never live down the teasing.


	8. Chapter 8

The moment that Red had decided not to make another attempt to brave her store and walked off, Mya felt somewhat badly for reacting the way that she had towards him, not badly enough to give his wallet back mind you- but still fairly badly. In her defense though, he had sort of been a little too _friendly_ especially when it came to kissing.

Despite him being a pirate- and whatever poor choices he'd made in life- she didn't exactly _hate_ the guy. He pissed her off with his overly friendly manner, sure. But she still didn't exactly hate him.

In fact compared to most pirates she had met, he was rather nice and well mannered when it came to women. At least that's what she had come to understand after trying to bash his head in with the shelf that she'd used to chase him out of her store with.

After all, if he were the type to use violence towards a woman- he would have merely pulled the pistol that he'd been carrying in his sash and shot her for her audacity. Not only that but he hadn't even cursed at her.

He'd shouted at her for calling him a 'son of a bitch' sure, but not actually cursed _at_ her for the insult to his mother or himself.

To be perfectly honest, she wasn't a hundred percent sure what to make of the man. He acted like a love struck goof ball around her- which she didn't totally mind, in fact at least two percent of her more feminine side found the fact that the attractive red haired man liked her. But the rest of her was sort of on the fence about everything else.

Emptying his wallet of every piece of gold, silver, bronze and even every slip of paper, she then set it aside as she tried to recall why he had stepped foot into her shop in the first place. Well- before she had tried to kill him anyways.

He'd mentioned something about courting gifts?

If so then she should feel relieved that the handsome specimen that she had nearly frightened to death wasn't as interested in her as he had initially acted like he was. However that pesky two percent of her female mind felt rather disappointed that he didn't like her enough to court her.

Not that she wanted to be courted by him or anything.

Having a man that physically stunning hanging around her, especially given his chosen occupation, would cause her nothing but grief. Still...maybe she could pick some stuff out for his lady friend and hold it for him since he'd already paid her upfront.

It took her until lunchtime to clear the store of it's current customers, some of which had stuck around to laugh about the funny spectacle she and the pirate had made, earlier. But the second that she had managed to clear the store, she turned the sign to show that she was on her lunch break and then went to go and pick some nice pieces of jewelry, sweetly scented soaps, lotions, and perfumes of the finest quality and some clothing and accessories.

She'd had to be sure to pick the clothing in several sizes since one size most definitely didn't fit all. And she would let him pick what he felt was appropriate upon his return. After that was done, she left her store to go to a nearby café to eat something.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************)

Shanks, after finally managing to replenish his 'new wallet' of it's cash and coin with a well timed trip to the ship, returned to the island and hid himself near Mya's shop and waited for the next best time to approach her to present itself.

After he had walked away from her earlier, he had developed a nice healthy respect and fear of his woman's temper. So much so that he was planning to live on his ship once he got her pregnant just so that he'd be out of her way when he needed to be.

It was probably the only way that he would survive her being pregnant unless he kept her bedridden.

Peeking around the corner of the building he was hiding himself beside, he saw her exit her shop and begin walking. Deciding that now might be a good time to see what she was up to, he slipped out from beside the building and onto the crowded street a decent distance behind her, and trailed her to a cozy looking café.

He paused in mid step as she was greeted by several people inside before grabbing herself a nice seat at one of the outdoor tables where she ordered some chai spice tea and something to eat.

Figuring that it must be damned close to lunch time, Shanks let his lips quirk up in a rogue-like grin before heading over to her table and pulling out the empty seat and then dropping himself down into it.

The suddenness of the action must have startled her somewhat, if the way that she jumped could be used as some sort of indication.

Her green eyes flickered up towards his face for a brief moment, and he wouldn't swear to it, but he was fairly certain that he saw a measure of guilt in those pretty eyes of hers as he said, "This a is nice place. I don't think I've ever been to a café quite like this one before." As he gave the place a once over before letting his copper colored eyes settle back on her.

At first glance, the café was just that. Not really anything special.

Just someplace cozy to come and eat at.

However at second glance, the place was quite expensive. Not only that, but their menu's for breakfast, lunch and dinner were somewhat peculiar. Shanks had never seen a café that _didn't_ serve fruits, salads, and muffins all day long. Whereas the place he was now sitting in had to be one of the most well disguised high class steak houses that he'd ever seen before.

Looking back at his woman, he noticed that she had gotten herself a salad, some soup, a loaded baked potato, and a fairly large- damned near plate sized- piece of medium rare steak to eat.

It was a fairly large meal for such a wee little thing like his wife. He almost half expected her to finish the soup and salad and _maybe_ the potato before pushing her plate away claiming that she felt sick or something.

After all, wasn't that what the typical woman did when near a man to make themselves appear less gluttonous?

Mya thinned her lips for a moment as she stared at him for a second before finally saying, "I was wondering when you were going to show up again. Since your here- would you like to join me for lunch? I'll even pay since I took your money."

Shanks gave her a slow smile, unsure of what sort of ploy she was attempting to use on him now since this was the first real show of civility and politeness he'd seen from her since returning to the island. But after earlier, he would be on his guard.

"That's a very kind of you. I would love to join you, lass. The food smells amazing enough, I suppose that it wouldn't hurt none to try it."

Mya nodded her head at him and then reached over and picked up her formerly discarded menu, and handed it to him as she lifted a hand to wave someone over to take his order and said, "You want the number five meal. Make sure that your specific about what cut of meat you want, as well as how it's cooked. Though I recommend medium rare since it just tastes better. Also be specific about your side dishes."

"You don't look like a soup and salad sort of guy. They have a little bit of everything in there as a side, ranging from cheese fries, coleslaw, mashed potato's and gravy- ect. Also look over the drinks and try to figure out what you would like to drink. They don't serve ale, but around now- they start serving wine. You won't be able to get a whole bottle for your meal, so at most you can have three glasses before you'll need to switch over. Also their teas and desserts are great too." She flashed him a small awkward looking smile as he blinked his eyes at her. His mind suddenly on information overload.

That must have been the most that she had spoken to him since his return. He wasn't entirely sure, but he sort of felt like he wanted to duck into the men's room and have a good cry- I mean, he wouldn't- but he sort of felt like doing so because she was finally speaking to him in _more_ than a threatening manner.

She was speaking to him like a...sort of friend.

It was kind of baffling, truth be told.

The waiter came over and paused next to her and looked her dishes over for a second before asking in a teasing manner. "Did you run out of honey mustard and ranch dressing already?"

Mya gave the young man an amused smile and then said, "Yes. I think you'll have to break out the jugs this time to keep me from running out."

The young man laughed before saying back, "I honestly don't think those things would last more than two minutes apiece." Finally looking over at Shanks, he smiled in a friendly manner and introduced himself as James. Mya's 'friend'. Shanks smiled back in a friendly manner, though the wheels in his head were going more than a mile a minute as the young man- *cough* competition *cough*- took his order and then told him to give him a few minutes before walking off to put his order in.

He waited until the lad was well out of earshot before turning to Mya and asking rather suddenly, "So...tell me about _James_." Causing his wife to look at him oddly. Apparently she caught the hint of censure in his tone and didn't know what it was he was on about.

"James, moved here about a year ago after a freak accident killed one of his older brothers and he decided to come here and work in his late brother's place to help support his aging parents. We met on the mainland. He walked into my shop one day to get some stuff as gifts for his parents and was pleasantly surprised. We got to talking and sort of bonded a bit."

"You both banter like an old married couple." Shanks said almost bitterly, thinking that it should be the two of them bantering back and forth and being all lovey-dovey and such.

"And your beginning to sound like a jealous lover- and even if there was something between me and James it really isn't any of your business. Besides, the kid is at least five years my junior and I'm not overly fond of being considered a cradle robber. Now shut the hell up about James and just to make my point clear to you- _leave him alone_. The kid has enough on his plate with being the sole provider of income for his family, he doesn't need to be harassed over a relationship that we _don't_ have."

Shanks took a moment to let her words soak into his mind before giving her a small smile and a slight shrug of his shoulders before replying, "Noted."


	9. Chapter 9

Lunch after that went fairly decent, Shanks supposed. The food was good, and the company was just as good in his opinion, even though Mya was somewhat reluctant to start up a real conversation again after he'd tried to pry information about _James_ out of her.

Sure she still spoke to him, but only when he asked a question or something.

For instance, he at one point asked her how she had gotten started in her line of work. Her reply to his question was, "I've always liked designing and making things. When I was younger- even before my grandfather was killed by the marines," She paused at that point and looked more than a little bit uncomfortable at even mentioning the incident in passing, causing Shanks to reach out automatically and take one of her hands in his and give it a gentle squeeze to show that she didn't have to continue if she didn't wish to. Though he would very much like to hear what she had to say about the subject. "Sorry. It's still somewhat hard to mention that even in passing." She said apologetically as she blushed a little bit and stared down at their hands, clasped together on the table for a moment before clearing her throat and deciding to go a different route.

"When I was just a little girl, I used to love all sorts of things crafts. It didn't matter what they were- Sewing, embroidery, jewelry, lotions, soaps, and all manner of other things. I even went through a phase as a kid where whenever I would pass a blank space on my grandpa's walls- I would go running to my room, get some crayons and markers and come back to the empty spot and fill it with really weird, and really colorful doodles."

"My grandpa would come by it later once I was done, and look at the once empty space and just shake his head and say- I'm glad that I didn't get her any paints. She'd have finger painted the whole house by now."

Shanks snorted in an effort to hold back a laugh. That definitely sounded like something her grand-da Avery would do and say.

"After a while, grand-da got it into his head that I was going to grow up and go into business for myself. So whenever his friend would come back from...wherever he'd go. My grand-da would see to it that I had learned some new skills and made a ton of stuff, and he would sell it all to his friend and put a majority of the money he made off of the guy back so that I would one day have enough to..."

"To do what you loved." Shanks finished for her. Mya merely smiled at him and nodded her head.

"Yeah. But I sort of deviated from the plan a little bit when I met this boy," Upon hearing this from her, Shanks somewhat perked up in his seat, not wanting to hope too much that his mite was speaking of him. "He was my first love. I don't recall his name or his face or anything really about his appearance at all. But I can remember some of the things we did together before he left the island."

"I recall that the first time I met him, he went out and caught a garden snake and chased me through my grand-da's home and out of it and around the back yard until the guy that had been taking care of him grabbed him and smacked him really hard upside the head."

Shanks didn't dare laugh at this since he recalled how pissed Gol had been at him for making her cry. Not only that but the blow to the head he'd taken that day had damned near concussed him.

"It took some doing, but he gradually warmed up to me. And after that we were practically inseparable. We went everywhere together, we did everything together and then one day he just...left. And then the marines came, and when I woke up in the hospital all I recall thinking was, 'I wonder why he isn't here?' And for a long time after that, I sort of felt as if I had been abandoned. I had to go through so much. Retrain my body and mind- years of physical therapy..."

Shanks wasn't sure what to say to her after she had mentioned the whole abandonment thing. He supposed in a lot of ways, his absence could very well be seen as such. Especially given their history together.

Still, one thing had him a wee bit curious. Even though they were sort of skirting the details. He wanted to know where she'd been shot and just how extensive the damage had been.

"Lass, I wanna know something. And I know it's difficult to speak of, but please humor me. I'm not doing this to be hurtful or cruel. I-I've heard around the village from a few who know you that ye were _...injured_... C-Could you tell me where?"

Mya was silent for a good while, seeming to contemplate his request before finally giving in and lifting her free hand to her long bangs and pushing them back so that he could see.

There on her forehead, almost a little bit to the left of dead center was a puckered red star-like shape from where the bullet had entered her skull, but what really shocked him wasn't the small mark nor the placement of it. It was the ugly jig saw like marking that formed a sort of makeshift square next to it.

"The bullet spattered a good portion of my skull and brain on the ground before I got any help. I was told that the marine that tried to help me scooped up as much as he could of the fractured bone and shredded tissues and tried to hold my head together."

Shanks made a mental note to find out who the marine had been so that he could both beat him within an inch of his life and thank him for helping his wife as he slowly stood up, and pushed his chair back so that he could move around the table.

He knew that despite how Mya was acting about the injury, she was probably more than a little bit self conscious about it. After all, most pretty women didn't like scars being on their face's. They tended to think that having them for some weird reason, made them less of a woman.

Reaching out, he carefully brushed aside her hand and replaced it with his own. Threading the silken strands of her bangs through his fingers before leaning down and took a brief moment to debate with himself whether or not it was worth it to possibly be bludgeoned to death by the table that they had been eating at, and then finally decided on 'worth it' and pressed his lips against the small red star-like scar and then pulled back and said somewhat nervously as his gaze shifted between her and the table, "If you want to kill me for kissing you this time, then I'll allow it and die a happy man."

"Nah. I think I'll let it slide this time," Mya said and nearly sniggered at how he slumped over in relief. Obviously happy that his life was safe for the time being. "Are you done eating for now?" She asked out of the blue as she eyed his plate for a moment.

He'd eaten a majority of his steak, his potato's were gone, his soup was missing, and there was little else for him to finish up. Where as she had slowed her eating out of habit and as such hadn't finished anything beyond her soup and salad and picking at the rest of it.

"Yeah, I think I am."

"Very well. I'll go and pay the bill. If there is anything else that you want, now is a good time to say something."

"D-do they have anything sweet?"

"Pie, cake, tarts and other things."

"Oooh. Can I get one of everything and a large chai spice tea to go?" He asked, sounding almost like a little kid in a candy store. So much so that Mya couldn't resist laughing at his antics as she got to her feet and nodded her head.

"Sure, sure. I think I'll get a pumpkin pie, and a bit of chocolate cake and a large chai tea to go too. Especially since I'm not sure when I'll get to eat again."

Her words seemed to have wiped the grin off of his face somewhat as he watched her walk off and then waited for _James_ to come by and collect their dishes before he grabbed the lad and told him to get a to go box for Mya's food.

If his wife was having trouble finding time during the day to sit down and eat, then he'd have to start seeing to it that there was food everywhere she turned- if need be. He did not want her starving herself because she was overworking.

A few minutes after _James-_ the name still made Shanks _long_ to spit and scrub his tongue with something akin to sandpaper _-_ returned and boxed up what was left of her food, plus some extra ranch and honey mustard for her to dip her steak in, all while gabbing on almost endlessly about how much she seemed to like the stuff with her food since she never really ate any kind of meat without it.

Unless she was eating sandwiches. In which case she substituted them out with mayo and horseradish sauce. Lots and _lots_ of horseradish sauce. For some reason that Shanks didn't understand- the lad seemed to find her liking the stuff humorous. He may have asked about it, but decided that he didn't want to be hearing the lad's voice for much longer anyways.

The lad may have made some mention of some other things, but by then Shanks had tuned him out and was simply waiting on his woman to come back with their sweets so that he could walk her to her shop and perhaps finally get the chance to look around.


	10. Chapter 10

After Mya had returned with their sweets and chai tea's, Shanks quickly collected his baked good and tea from her and then picked up her leftover lunch and then two of them started walking back to her shop as he asked her some questions about some of the potential stuff that he may like to look at. But the conversation was a mite tricky. Especially since he didn't _know_ of everything that she had in the actual store.

Though from earlier, it had certainly looked as if she had had a little bit of everything. Formal and casual clothing, shoes, fine and fashion jewelry, and many, many other items that he hadn't had so much as a chance to glance at in passing.

Mya took several minutes to tell him what she had, as well as some of the stuff that she had picked out for him to look at to use as courtship gifts. And frankly he was impressed by what he had heard.

He wasn't a man whom had wooed anyone before- but from what little bit he _did_ know of courting a woman- they tended to like many of the things that his wife had mentioned.

He wasn't all that sure what sort of perfumes, lotions and scented soaps and such she had picked out for him to look over. But she had mentioned several in passing that he already fancied. He just needed to check their scent's personally before he committed to anything.

But from the sound of it; the peony and peach and the alternate version peony and white strawberry, white lily and sandalwood, and sweet hyacinth, _all_ sounded _wonderful_ to him _._ But then so did the rose sandalwood, and the vanilla bean and chai spice.

But then he was becoming rather fond of chai spice flavored and scented stuff due to his new favorite tea. So perhaps he was becoming a little bit biased there.

They finally reached her shop to find a bunch of people hanging around, waiting eagerly for her return just so they could shop in her store. Shanks stood back with his hands full while his lady opened her shop doors and let the masses in to do their shopping before turning to him and quietly taking her things and motioning with her head for him to follow her.

He did so quietly, though he had some issues with ignoring an all out brawl that broke out between a small group of women who all apparently wanted the same shirt for themselves. He had been about to step in and throw them out- or at the very least intimidate them into stopping their petty fighting- however a small hand on one of his shoulder's stopped him in his tracks as he turned his head to glance down at Mya's face for a moment as she slowly shook her head no.

Though from her expression, he could tell that she was less than pleased by the women fighting over an article of clothing in her store.

Possibly because they were being disruptive. Or maybe because she was already planning to ban them from the shop. He didn't know what she was thinking much less planning to do about her irksome patrons. So he shrugged his broad shoulder's ever so slightly and turned himself back around to follow her again.

This time he didn't so much as let his attention stray. But only because he was checking out the gentle sway of her hips and the nice curves of her ass, eliciting a roguish grin to curve his lips as he kept his eyes on her _very_ feminine backside.

He hadn't really been paying much attention before now, but his wife had a rather nice body on her. Petite, slender build, generous- but not obscenely so, breasts- a flat stomach, flared hips, long slender legs...

Yes indeed, his wife was a lovely specimen of womanhood.

And he was one lucky, lucky son of a bitch... Of course the moment that that thought even entered his mind it was quickly followed by thoughts of his crew finding out just how lucky he was to have this amazing lass as his bride, and mutiny after beating the snot out of him.

Maybe he should see if the unmarried and unattached fellows had visited the island brothel yet. It probably couldn't hurt anything, he supposed when he suddenly realized that Mya had stopped walking and looked around for a moment.

He was in the back of the shop in what looked like an office/workplace of some kind. There were plastic storage boxes with labels, several file cabinets, a decent sized desk with a bunch of things neatly placed on it-

"This is the stuff that I set aside for you to go through. I hope that I at least did a decent job of picking. Usually when I pick something out for a guy, I have to pretend I'm someone else."

"Someone else?" He asked curiously.

"Ugh yeah. I-It sometimes helps to pretend that I'm the one receiving the gifts. It sort of makes it easier to choose." Mya said awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her neck with one hand. Shanks studied her for a moment before asking, somewhat hopefully/cautiously so as not to get caught.

He didn't want a repeat of this morning happening. "Hypothetically speaking, if you were the one receiving such things... What would you wish to get from a man?"

Mya blushed and then moved around him and pulled the peony and peach, and sweet hyacinth, peony and white strawberry, and white lily and sandalwood scented gift sets, complete with matching perfumes and other cosmetics based on the sets. Finger nail polish, eye shadow, blush, and chap and lipsticks. All ranging in color from dark to light.

After which she moved on to the jewelry and picked out close to ten pieces. Many of which were worth more than a small fortune and ranged from a braided freshwater pearl and solid gold necklace and bracelet set. To a pair of opal and jade necklaces with matching earrings and rings with three and four millimeter, delicate white gold beads and fastenings. Followed by a cluster of white and pink diamond jewelry that looked like little stars and star dust set in platinum.

They were some of the most beautiful pieces that Shanks had ever seen before. Not to mention some of the most valuable he'd ever seen.

Frankly he was speechless.

Not by just her choices- no, he didn't mind those at all. His woman had some classy tastes. Which was something that he could appreciate. He himself liked tasteful things.

It didn't always matter if he had the most expensive, despite the fact that he could afford quite a bit. But he definitely liked tasteful. Not only that but each of the pieces of jewelry that she had picked out so far, would look fetching on his wife. He liked that too.

"And the clothing?" He asked curiously. His amber eyes studying her as she picked some items that made him internally grin a little bit.

His wife liked classical clothing. Stuff that showed little skin, yet was modest and sexy. She picked out two dresses, a black one with scarlet trim and a white one that would fall to her ankles with little purple and pink thread embroidered flower clusters here and there. Both of which laced up the front and had heart shaped necklines that would show some cleavage, but not so much that he'd have to kill anyone for looking at her.

She also picked some pants, a few knee length skirts that was he already beginning to fantasize about her wearing. While he pinned her against a wall, with his mouth on her neck and his hand skimming along her leg, hiking the offending fabric higher and higher so that he could touch her mons through her- _Wait!_ Did she even wear panties?

God he hoped not.

But if she did he hoped- his thoughts were cut off rather abruptly when she leaned over one of the piles of clothing and picked up a matching panty and bra set that took his mind a few seconds longer than absolutely necessary to register. But when he finally did, she had the most adorable pout on her pretty face as she asked, "You hate it don't you?"

He would have been quicker to deny that he disliked the items but his tongue hadn't quite started working again so instead of speaking he grabbed the items from her hands and quickly stuffed the sheer, baby soft lace in his pants pockets.

He didn't care if it made him look deformed around the waist, all he cared about was what he intended to do to the items once he was alone, back at his hotel room, thank you very much.

Finally once she finished picking out everything, he nodded and managed to squeak out, "I'll take them all."


	11. Chapter 11

Shanks lay on his bed in his hotel room half dressed in a state that could only be described as _euphoric-like intoxication_. His lungs burned as if he were having trouble catching his breath. His heart thudded in his chest, his stomach muscles trembled underneath his fingertips as he lightly spread the wetness of his last spend into his beyond sensitized, sweat slicked skin as a soft moan escaped his sore, and abused vocal chords.

 _Oh god_... He couldn't recall the last time he'd spent hours fantasizing about anything of a sexual or deviant nature and actually gotten off from it.

But after what had happened earlier that day when he had plucked those wonderful, and thoroughly, _deliciously sinful_ lace panties from his wife's fingers and pocketed them- all of the blood had rushed south, giving him a raging hardon so quickly that he had almost damned near passed out before he could collect everything and escape so that he could await nighttime so that he could deliver his courtship gifts to Mya's home in secret.

Letting out one last soft moan as his body shuddered from the small aftershocks of pleasure, he draped an arm over his eyes and closed them for a little bit feeling the need to rest while he could.

And when he finally reopened them again, it was several hours after dark.

Sighing Shanks slowly pushed himself up on one elbow and ran his fingers through his red locks and wrinkled his nose a little bit. He needed to bathe, badly and find himself some clean clothes and decide what he would be delivering to his woman while he was at it.

Rolling off of the mattress, he slowly ambled his way into the bathroom and begin shedding his clothing when he caught a faint glimpse of his reflection in the mirror and paused with his shirt half way off of his shoulders.

His hair was unfashionably long and shaggy looking, and he had several days growth of beard stubble covering his jaw. He'd need to take care of those and keep himself a bit more tidy for his wife's sake. He didn't want to go embarrassing the poor little lass by looking like something that lived underneath a bridge or something.

Although from how she had acted earlier today while in his presence, she didn't seem to mind his ragged appearance all that much. But he was trying to woo her, so he needed to look...well, _better_ than usual. He no longer looked like the shaggiest hobo on the island. So that was a great improvement in and of itself.

Perhaps tomorrow he'd look into buying himself some new clothing. Something a little more formal to set the mood for wooing his wife since everything about the woman practically screamed- ' _CLASSY,_ and damned worth the money you'll spend on me.'

She didn't seem like the greedy type who coveted wealth, so there was no reason why he couldn't spend a modest amount on some formal clothing and still look nice enough to woo her.

The shower took him a while since he wound up soaking until the water ran cold in an effort to completely relax, afterwards he'd stepped out and looked around for his brush, and other grooming supplies and then returned to the bathroom and used a small rag to wipe the mirror off with and then set to work on cutting his hair and shaving.

Once done, he examined his reflection with a critical eye before nodding his head slightly at his reflection. Yes, he decided that he looked a great deal better like this. While on the island he'd have to remember to make a habit of grooming himself properly.

Leaving the bathroom, he walked back into the bedroom with his towel wrapped low around his hips and quickly hunted down some decent clothing to wear for his upcoming task, and then dropped the towel and quickly dressed himself in some tight form fitting black pants and a somewhat loose, navy colored long sleeved button up shirt.

After that, he spent a few minutes slipping his boots on and lacing them up before shifting his attention to the items piled on a spare table that served as a desk and tried to decide on what items to take with his since he couldn't exactly take them all tonight.

He chose the peony and peach, sweet hyacinth, and the vanilla chai spice for tonight's endeavor. Deciding that the lotions, soaps, perfumes and body sprays would do for now.

He then moved on to a few pieces of jewelry and picked one of the jade necklaces and earring sets before then picking up one of the white and pink diamond items. A ring that he thought would work well as an engagement ring, and studied the little stars interwoven into the platinum band before quickly pocketing it and then picked out the last few items.

The white ankle length dress with purple and pink embroidered flowers that he envisioned her wearing for their first official date and once he had it placed aside then picked out some matching cosmetics to go with it and then slipped everything into one of the bags that had formerly contained it and then headed for the door.

He had a woman to woo.

Getting out of the hotel wasn't an issue for him, despite the countless drunken men and women wandering about at the late hour. Nor was walking the semi empty streets of the town until he reached Mya's home.

What did however pose a problem for him was the fact that she was not only still awake but was also staring down six of the most fantastically scandalously clad buxom women that he had ever seen with an expression that could only be described as complete and utter disgust and Shanks quickly ducked behind the biggest bush/tree that would hide him so that he could see why the six ladies had the audacity to be keeping his woman up and awake at this hour.

"I told your grandma's that I'm not interested in working at the brothel. Now get lost."

"You know that it doesn't work that way Mya. We can't just leave. Not until you come with us."

"No."

"Why not? What is so bad about working there?" One woman with blond curls asked. Mya merely gave her a duh expression before finally slowly saying,

"For starter's I have more respect for myself. Secondly of all, I'm saving myself for marriage-" The six women tittered amongst themselves as she continued, "And third of all, I refuse to spread my legs to make money when I'm already a very successful business woman. Besides, your grandma's have already abused and killed two girls in cold blood, why would I want to place myself in such a position? Sorry, but no thanks. I do just fine on my own and you _and_ your grandmother's need to learn to _respect_ that."

Shanks narrowed his eyes at the six women and glared. So that was what was going on here. Well as far as he was concerned this shit was damned well going to stop.

Quickly weighing the pros and cons of simply stepping out into the open and laying a nice passionate kiss on his woman's lips before introducing himself as her betrothed- he decided quickly that the possibly beating that he would soon receive would be well worth it.

Especially since he doubted that the whores would stick around to cause more trouble once they knew/believed that Mya was taken.

Stepping out into the open, Shanks quickly made a show of walking up to the seven women in a seemingly clueless manner, earning several calculating looks from the trollops and at least one eye roll from Mya before he reached her side and simply smiled at her and said, "Hello love," And then leaned down a tad bit and brushed his lips across her own. "I've fetched the things that you asked for to use as samples for our wedding," He said as he then shifted his grip on the bags with the clothing and jewelry and cosmetics and other things so that he could fish the white and pink diamond ring out of his pants pocket and grinned before tacking on, "I also picked up the engagement ring while I was out. Do you like it my heart?"

Mya looked embarrassed to be sure. Floundering for a proper response to his claims, even more so. Yet all she seemed able to do was stare at him slack jawed in disbelief as he then turned to the six whores and gave them a less than friendly smile as he said, "Now why would you have company so late at night when you were only expecting me?"

"Who the hell are you?" One of the women demanded in a snotty tone.

"My name is Shanks. Red haired Shanks, one of the four emperors of the sea, pirate, and lady Mya's future husband. What I want to know is, who are you six to come here and dare to make demands of my woman?"


	12. Chapter 12

Not long after Shanks had asked his question of them with a sinister looking smirk curving his lips , the six trollops had run screaming into the night. Leaving him somewhat awkwardly standing there with his wife watching the dust trail that they were kicking up as they ran away.

Finally once they were out of sight, Mya let out a low whistle of appreciation- and could one really blame her? She had never seen whores run from her home that quickly, in high heels no less, without at least falling or tripping and breaking their ankle or something else along the way.

However they had all been so terrified this time that they hadn't fallen or tripped even _once_. It was more than a little bit impressive, and was a clear testament to how scared they had been.

Finally Shanks made a rumbling/humming sound in the back of his throat and reached a hand up to shove his fingers through his red locks as he turned his amber eyes to his wife and said in a serious tone, "I think the two of us need to speak about what just happened."

To which Mya replied, "Thanks, but no thanks. There isn't really much to speak about-"

Narrowing his eyes at the stubborn little woman, he almost lost control of his temper. As it was it felt as if the blood in his veins had turned to ice.

He didn't care what his wife said, when a man comes to his woman's home expecting her to be getting her beauty sleep and instead finds a gaggle of whores attempting to speak to/blackmail/explain the benefits of working as a fellow whore- there both _was_ and _is_ something to speak about.

And frankly he wasn't leaving until he got the information that he wanted and delivered his courtship gifts. So there.

"Do not stand there and lie to me lass, I've had it damned near up to my eyeballs with liars. And I do not wish to deal with you lying to me out of some misplaced sense of pity or concern when it was _painfully_ obvious from what little bit I heard that those sluts had neither any pity nor any concern for you."

"It's still nothing worth speaking about."

"Woman-" He said warningly as he took a step towards her only to stop cold when she said.

"It's sweet that your upset about this whole thing- And I appreciate you stepping in to help, but it wasn't necessary. I'd like you to leave now...Shanks." And then turned to walk back up to her house, probably to go inside and ready herself for bed while Shanks clenched his teeth and fists and tried to figure out the next step to take.

Should he just let her go and simply go about his nightly business and perhaps speak to her in the morning about the incident? He doubted that any length of time would calm the rage threatening to bubble up inside of him.

If anything he'd do something stupid like go burn down the brothel with the women inside. Well okay- that was a mite drastic even for him. And usually he didn't harm women no matter how unlikable or distasteful he found them to be. However those women were after his wife.

That was a _huge_ mistake of epic proportions. So...maybe burning down the brothel wasn't that radical a leap in logic. After all, no brothel- no place for the whores to work. Right?

No wait...he'd have to burn down all of the hotels or send some of his men to shanghai the females and take them somewhere else to keep them from continuing to do business on the island.

Actually the property damages weren't worth having everyone hate him and his crew. Especially since it could come back on Mya so kidnapping the sluts may be the best way to remove the problem all together.

He'd have to plan everything carefully, and get some of his guys on it, in the meantime however- he suddenly found himself following closely behind his wife as she walked. His steps were stealthy and silent for such a tall and heavily muscled man.

And Mya either didn't seem to notice him or simply didn't care that he was so close behind her until they reached her front door and she suddenly turned and made a small, squeaking sound when she almost ran right into him. Taking the small opening, Shanks wrapped his arms around her and yanked her against his frame so hard that he could feel the breath leave her in a whoosh as he absently reached out with one hand and grasped the doorknob and twisted it so that the two of them practically fell through the door.

They hit the floor with a thud, Shanks resting on top of his love with one hand carefully holding the back of her head. Just like he had to protect her skull from gaining any unsightly knots when they had fallen.

Mya blinked up at him in a daze as he quickly moved so that he was straddling her, his face hovering just inches from her own as he breathed, "Sorry love. But we really do need to talk a bit," She winched a little bit as she finally managed to catch her breath and mouthed, 'get off', to him. This only earned a slightly apologetic look from him before he said, "You can kick my ass for this later, lass. In the meantime- have you eaten anything yet?"

The sudden shift in topic would have been startling, if Shanks wasn't the single minded individual that he was. Taking her silence as an answer, he nodded his head and quickly removed himself from her so that he could move around her and then reached down and grabbed one of her wrists and carefully, very, _very_ carefully pulled her even further into the house.

And then walked around her so that he could close and lock the door and then moved back over to her and collected her in his arms, removing her from the floor where she had lain and started walking through the house to the kitchen as he rambled about how he would cook her something for dinner and they would have a nice glass of wine or two and talk about several important things.

All the while Mya sat impassively in his arms glaring a hole through him and silently vowing that he'd be limping if he tried anymore funny shit with her before the night was over.


	13. Chapter 13

The moment that they were inside the kitchen, Shanks pulled a chair out for her at the island in the middle of her kitchen so that she could sit herself down, and then moved around her so that he could look to see what she had in the way of wine, and food for him to work with.

After all, hadn't he just a short time ago promised his woman a meal cooked by his own hand? And it was just _one_ of a the many, many promises that he completely intended to deliver on.

After finding a nice bottle of aged red wine in a closet just off of the kitchen, Shanks quickly popped the cork on it so that it could sit on the counter for a few moments and breathe as he then looked at Mya expectantly, and waited for her to say something.

But his girl was stubborn. And he should have expected her to sort of act somewhat hostile towards him for what he had done earlier when he had butted in. And also because he had sort of manhandled her _without_ her permission.

So he wasn't offended when she remained silent, and instead turned his back and rolled his eyes a little bit at her somewhat endearingly immature tactic of giving his the silent treatment as he began to check her cupboards before finally finding some nice, crystal glasses.

They weren't exactly the type that he'd use for drinking wine or liquor of any kind whatsoever unless he was looking to get good and sloshed, but they would have to do. Setting the fragile crystal down on the counter, he went ahead and poured them both a drink and then slid one of the glasses across the counter to her and watched as she snatched it up and gulped it all down in one go. Causing him to internally cringe a little bit as she slid the cup back towards him and waited for a refill.

"Pace yourself lass, it'll be a long night ahead of us both if you don't."

"You're not my mother." Was Mya's only response as she reached across the island and poured herself another drink and then downed it and went for another refill before he finally snatched the wine bottle back away from her and gave her a mock glare.

"There will be no getting sloshed tonight lass," Shanks practically growled at her before tacking on under his breath, "Not unless you're looking to make a mistake and mess up your bedsheets with me." And then said a little more clearly so that she could hear him just in case she hadn't before. "I'm afraid that I'm not such a gentleman that I might not take full advantage of you in a drunken state. I've waited for many years to return to you and claim you properly."

Mya frowned at his words, because they were...odd. Despite the more than noticeable note of longing that she easily detected in his voice. As much as she wanted to deny whatever was happening here- she couldn't lie to herself not totally anyways.

She may be loathe to admit it aloud, but she sort of, kinda, maybe- thought that Shanks was...nice? Sweet? Endearing? All of those maybe. Attractive certainly. The man was so handsome that it sometimes hurt to look directly at him. And though she would like to continue being in denial- she had to admit that she was kind of attracted to him.

She wasn't sure about how long exactly she could have lied to herself about this fact. But she was fairly certain that if the man had kept pussy footing around, she might have simply taken to ignoring him despite that fact. But now, with him here right in front of her.

She couldn't ignore her attraction to him. She couldn't ignore him period.

The damned man wouldn't let her! He _literally_ wouldn't let her! And it was really, really damn _irksome_. After all, she didn't set out the other day to maybe, possibly, snag herself a- whatever he was attempting to be... _No!_ She was at the bar the other day to drink some nice liquor after a hard day and try to sketch some new design ideas for her jewelry line.

And where had meeting him gotten her so far?

In her kitchen with said man 'claiming her' as if she were his damned property. Also while said man was keeping her booze from her! Speaking of- if he didn't hand her liquor back to her real soon she was going to go mid evil on his dumb, red headed, pirate ass and beat him black and blue with some soap bars in a sock.

Prison style.

Just enough to bruise him up real bad. Hell she might do that anyways out of sheer annoyance, no man should be as blindingly stunning as he was anyways. _And he was still withholding her fucking wine from her!_

"You can talk all you want- just give back my wine."

"Nay lass, as I said before. I'll not have you drunk before we can truly speak of anything."

"Shouldn't you focus less on my drinking habits and more on cooking that meal that you promised?" She pointed out in a bored manner that nearly set Shank's teeth on edge.

By the saints! He'd known that speaking to Mya would be a more difficult than he had thought, but never so much more than he had imagined. As it was right now he was sorely tempted to take the lass over his knee and spank her for her attitude.

However he just sighed and muttered, "As you will, love. Now where do you keep everything? And what do I have to work with?" Maybe she'd be in a better mood to talk if he fixed her one of his famous five star meals.

"Cabinets have the pots and pans, pantry has some spices and cooking wines, and the fridge and freezer has everything else." He nodded his head as he went to the freezer and pulled out some oysters, large shrimp and scallops. And _two_ fairly large and thick steaks and set them all on the counter before going to check the fridge.

He found some stuff to make a nice salad and seafood bisque in there. Which was nice since it was just one of his favorite foods. Pulling those out of the fridge, he then set the items on the counter next to the frozen pieces of food and grabbed a sharp knife and a pot and moved back over to the counter were he set the pot down and begun speaking again as he grabbed some fresh parsley and basil and began cutting some of them up.

"I'm going to tell you a story about two children who fell in love. It happened here on the island, twelve years ago- and once I'm done speaking _then_ you can ask your questions. So- Once upon a time..."


End file.
